Great Fisher is a hero of the mythic age and a friend (in some stories, the adopted elder brother) of the culture hero
href="http://www.native-languages.org/nanabozho.htm">Nanabozho. He has magical powers and is distinguished
by his bravery against large and dangerous monsters. Like many Native American heroes, Gitchi Odjig is portrayed
sometimes as an animal (in this case a kind of weasel called a
fisher) and other times
as a man. After bringing summer to the world, Great Fisher became the constellation commonly known as
the Big Dipper; according to some tellings his son Little Fisher also became the Little Dipper.